A goal achieved and a goal to be Adsense free gained

I managed to achieve another goal of mine this week which was a boost!

At the start of January I stated a list of 7 goals I wanted to achieve in 2008, so far No.2 on the list has been achieved – to get involved in an offline venture, a rocky start with the vehicle breaking down but a few jobs under the belt there and one landscaping job just signed up for this month that comes in at £4900 of which over 50% is naturally profit.

A goal achieved
This week I can chalk off No.7 – goal number 7 was working for one client on one keyword, my personal goal was to get them top 10 and then top 5, we reached top 10 in February and this week we reached top 5 which was quicker than expected. The good news is that this is an ongoing arrangement so the £800 ($1600) per month is to be added to my stable income for the foreseeable future.

A goal addedI really should have added an 8th target on my list – well I’d like to add one more, to be free from Adsense and organic listings, don’t get me wrong I love getting money from Adsense but it’s pretty infuriating that you can do the same thing each month, even have the same traffic and end up with totally difference results.

I wish that when you got to say $5k per month that Google would give you a contract guaranteeing that as a minimum for 6 months or 12 months, the up and down nature of the earnings means you are never really sure what the next month will bring. On top of that to be reliant on making money from my organic listings is hugely beneficial financially but it’s a risk that I don’t have full control over. I cannot guarantee with absolute certainty that I will maintain my organic traffic.

So, I’d like not to be reliant on this money and more than that not reliant on any one website, I won’t be going out of my way to remove any Adsense, I would always like to do something like $5000-$10,000 a month but I would like that not to be money the house needs. I asked the wife to total up all our monthly bills to see what the damage was and what we needed to survive on as a minimum wage. This includes mortgage, tv licence, Sky, Phone, Council Tax, Car Insurance, Home Insurance and food ect. The total comes to £1900 per month. So I want to make sure that I have a fixed income of over £1900 per month which isn’t too bad.

At present my fixed income consists of:
SEO work for a client £800 p.m.
Leased out domain (that was highly ranked) £500 p.m.

So during the course of the rest of the year I want to add £600 to my fixed monthly income and then I shall be Adsense free and not reliant on any organic rankings. My organic rankings and Adense will dwarf any fixed income but it’s probably prudent to make sure that if the shit was to hit the fan for any reason my bills are covered, after all I’d hate to have to get a real job!

Scott hails from the north east of Scotland and started earning online at the end of 2000 building websites for local businesses during which time he won an award from Lord Alan Sugar for Excellence in Enterprise. After having quite a bit of success with domaining Scott mainly runs educational evergreen websites which generate over 3 million visitors per month but is always on the lookout for a fresh thinking out of the box way to turn a buck. Follow on Twitter.

Comments

I am disapointed with Adsense so far in 2008 and am planning on replacing them gradually over the next 9 months. As you say, the fluctuations in earnings are just not enough to build a stable income with.

My outgoings are currently about £1850 per month, so I have a lot of work to do to replace that but most things are possible if you “Do” rather then just “Think” about things.

Scott, have you thought about ecommerce? There are some companies with great products who do not sell online because they do not know how to. If you can identify some of these companies and offer them to handle their online business for a % of the sales, many would probably agree. If you choose the right product and the right partner you could get a good income.

I haven’t Jav to be honest, I prefer to stay away from dealing with clients as much as possible and don’t want to slip back into ‘feeling’ like I am working for others again – but it’s a good opportunity for many.

I hate that feeling of “working for others” at the moment. I do it all day at work and did it for several years as a web host which at times could pull you away from family at weird hours of the night.

That’s the cost of living for me and my family at the moment It includes mortgage, car, insurances, council tax, tv licence, gas, electricity and what ever else is needed to survive.

£50/month is needed to keep gadgetvenue online although I could pay less. However, I have extra services from my host who monitor my site and keep it up and running if it goes off line for what ever reason.

I think Scott’s answered for me there (just to confuse matters more : ) CG pulled in $30K from Adsense in Decemeber but it’s normally at the $15K mark. I wouldn’t want to be Adsense free but like you say not dependant.

This is actually a very insightful post, as was your previous one about the landscaping venture. There is a general stigma nowadays that all the money out there is to be made on the net. But people are missing the obvious – just do something you love and do it well, the money will come!

Thanks for the helpful post. I have visited many sites that have been a complete waste of time. It is good to come across a site that actually helps and informs the users… I have included another really good site at the bottom that also helps me ou…

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